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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Fresh Mint Ice Cream - Outdoor Wednesday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Mint has been banished from our slopes and is now under house arrest. We had a bumper crop last year that all but strangled anything it its way. Between spearmint and peppermint our hillside had enough of the herb to supply every green grocer in the county. Now potted in containers, it's hard to remember the havoc caused by the unrestrained exuberance. This beautiful shrub-sized plant is the source of the peppermint used to make the mint ice cream that is my contribution to Outdoor Wednesday, an event sponsored by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. The ice cream recipe comes from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. I found the recipe at Serious Eats. This is a lovely ice cream. You're gonna love the way it tastes.

Directions:
1) Warm milk, sugar, 1 cup cream and salt in a small saucepan. Add mint leaves and stir until they're immersed in liquid. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
2) Strain mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan (milk will be a lovely shade of emerald). Mine was a pale green, not emerald. Press mint leaves to extract as much flavor as possible, then discard them. Pour remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer on top.
3) Rewarm mint-infused mixture. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks. Slowly pour warm mint liquid into egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape warmed egg yolks back into saucepan.
4) Stir mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping bottom as you stir, until mixture thickens and coats spatula. Pour custard through strainer and stir it into cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.
5) Chill mixture thoroughly in refrigerator. Then freeze it in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Turn into a storage container and freeze until ready to use. Yield: 1 Quart.

I have GOT to get myself an ice cream maker. I think the next time someone asks me what I want for my birthday, that's what I'm telling them! By the way, are you in the Portland area? We're thinking of taking a long family weekend there. Any place you think is not to be missed?

Mary-Your photos of your food are superb! They make me want to jump right in and devour, I can't wait to try some of them. I have some mint traveling in my garden, my parents used to make mint jelly that we would put on our pork chops that was very good. Not sure where you live, but does potting your mint in a container come back every year like in the garden or to buy it as an annual each year now or bring it inside?

I have 5 diffrent mints plants in my garde, hopefullt we will try to do this later in the summer when we have holiday.Thank you for the tips and thank you for stopping by my blog.Feel free to comment the photo, with the feeling you have when you see them.

Look at the color of that ice cream. Pure heaven. Thank you for visiting my blog. Happy Outdoor Wednesday. We had a mint invasion also, but gooseneck loosestrife beat it into submission. Who knew? xo Joan

This sounds wonderful Mary. I have planted my mints in pots as well. They do have rampant personalities, but we do so enjoy a lovely muddled mint mojito on a warm night. Yes, I shall let the boys enjoy theirs sans mother in the hot tub! I do appreciate your comments.

A friend warned me about the way her mint plant ran rampant through the yard, and I planted mine in a pot last year. It was growing like mad this year & I discovered why when I tried to move the pot. The roots grew through the drainage hole & into the ground! I pulled it up & moved the pot, so now it's looking very poorly. Thank goodness I hadn't planted it directly into the ground. ☺ Diane

I have given over one garden to mint and lemon balm, the two bullies of the herb world. I love the ice cream, the colour is gorgeous!. The food you create is always so appealing. Are you in need of a grown daughter? :)

I made some mint ice cream today and when I put it in the ice cream maker, I found it was cracked, so back into the fridge the custard went until I can get a new one, which must be soon! Yours looks very creamy!

Oh how wonderful! I know what you mean about mint taking over. My mother in law had a lovely flowerbed taken over by lemon balm. It smells great but we learned to keep it to containers too. After reading your post today, I think I *need* a pot of peppermint now, and spearmint too! Thanks for the recipe!!

Hi Mary,Love to grow mint, but had to learn the hard way to put it in pots, as it overpowered my herb garden one year a very long time ago. lol. This mint ice cream looks simply delicious, thank you for sharing it and for all of your recipes. Blessings,Sue

I've always heard that mint is quite invasive. But I think it gets too hot here for it. Even in the shade in pots buried part way in the dirt, it dies back. And I water daily. That ice cream looks divine.Brenda

Christina, we worked with six cones and knew via several dry runs exactly what we wanted to see. We did have drips but that didn't bother me. Ice cream drips. I'm not going for gourmet shots. I want you to look at the food and say I can do that. If it looks nice you're more likely to want to try.

Just this morning hubby came home from the farm to tell me he discovered a massive patch of mint. And then of course I come here to visit and you had just what I was looking for. Your photo looks splendid.

Your mint ice cream looks luscious.Your mint crop sounds amazing. So much mint you have to try to stop it from growing anymore. The mint in my yard struggles- I thought mint could grow anywhere! Did you do anything special to make it grow initially. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

I have a ton of mint contained in a big barrel (learned that lesson from my mother!) so I thought I'd try this recipe. Mine did not turn green at all when I let it steep. I tried leaving it in during the cooking, and it turned just slightly green, although then it mixed with the yellow from the yolks. What kind of mint did you use? Did you crush it first?

Karoline, I used the mint you see in the first picture. I bruised the leaves but did not muddle them. Mine turned only a pale green as I stated in the post. If you make this with spearmint leaves you will get stronger color. I'm sorry to hear you are not getting the color you had hoped for. Blessings...Mary

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